Napster-Hating Metallica Drummer: Free Music's Not So Bad

Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, also known as "the rich guy
who
bitched about Napster" now says that free online music may
not be such a bad thing, after all.

Lars and his bandmates once took a lot of flack for publicly
suggesting that "file sharers" were, in fact, not sharing music
but stealing it. But that doesn't mean he's not interested in,
say, using the Web to promote their next album -- whenever that
happens. Here he is in a recent
Rolling Stone interview:

"We want to be as free (as) players as possible. We've been
observing Radiohead and Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however
long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to
everything in terms of possibilities with the Internet."

Will that include giving the album away for free, or letting fans
"choose" their price? Unlikely. Beacause there's one big
difference between Metallica and those other artists – Metallica
has a giant record contract with Warner Music Group (WMG) --
which still is in the business of getting paid for music sales.